Confession: I blew it. I didn�t bother seeing School of Rock when it came out in 2003 because the trailer looked silly and smarmy and I cynically decided that director Richard Linklater just wanted to make money in between artier projects and because almost every Hollywood comedy is dumb and dumber still. So the other night I had the opportunity to watch the School of Rock DVD and with ...

For years Ian Pesch owned two of the most important bars of Milwaukee’s ’90s music scene, the Globe East and the Globe West. This tonight and tomorrow night, at his new South Side bar, Liquor Sweets, Pesch will bring back some of the Globe’s mainstays for a weekend to celebrate the Globe’s 15th anniversary. Among...

Hair metal is viewed in many ways: Reverence, distaste, obsession, incredulity and even humor are all evoked in descriptive commentary by critics and fans who debate the genre. No matter what your take on it, though, metal is still alive and well. With a mission statement that is geared toward injecting "new" into "old school," Milwaukee's Bone Shaker is one of the genre's biggest local proponents. The band has toured relentlessly since forming in 2006. Bookings picked up particularly after their well-received debut, 13 Ghosts, and they've since played large stages supporting bigger-name acts throughout the Midwest . . .

The all-local Cascio Interstate Music Groove Garage stage goes hard-rock for the day, with a headlining 8 p.m. set from Milwaukee glam-metal rockers Spiral Trance.

Blending a mix of narrative lyrics, lush instrumentation and synth-pop flourishes, the Toronto-based indie-pop collective Stars has distinguished itself from fellow bands treading this well-worn terrain. Led by vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, both sometimes members of Broken Social Scene...